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Steamboat Springs — A new sound system, new audio-visual equipment and other renovations to the Steamboat Springs High School theater survived a first reading by the Education Fund Board on Wednesday evening.

The Fund Board's Capital Commission made the $191,000 theater renovation recommendation. The commission also recommended that the Fund Board allocate money for small grants, a boiler for a playground snow-melt system and a security consultant for all three Routt County school districts.

The Fund Board administers the city's half-cent sales tax for education, which voters renewed in November along with approval to share revenues with Hayden and South Routt schools.

Steamboat Springs High School Assistant Principal Marty Lamansky, in a presentation supporting the school's theater renovation, said the renovation would benefit the students and community members who regularly use the space.

Lamansky said the theater was used 110 days last school year. Of those, 46 days were used by non-school groups.

"The performing arts space is the performing arts space for most groups that come into Steamboat Springs," he said. "One of the things that's very important to remember is the educational value that space provides."

The high school, with funding from the Fund Board, commissioned a study of the renovations necessary to the theater. The result was nearly $400,000 in potential renovations, but after consideration, Lamansky reduced the scope of the project to bring the estimate to $191,000.

That amount would include a renovation to the sound system and audio/visual equipment for meetings. Also included are dozens of changes to the stage and theater system, including electrical work, a storage shed for scenery and a part-time theater manager position to oversee the space.

Capital Commission member Kristi Brown said the majority of the money will go toward safety issues, including a lighting system that can be lowered to the stage, to reduce the need for students to work on lights from a catwalk.

Brown also said that in a telephone survey of Steamboat Springs residents regarding the Fund Board, respondents rated arts, music and theater as the second-most-supported type of project, with 12 percent of respondents listing it as the most important. Small class sizes scored first.

Fund Board members did not immediately embrace the $50,000 boiler for the Strawberry Park Elementary School playground, primarily because of the amount of money the Fund Board already had dedicated to the playground construction. The boiler, part of a snow-melt system already installed at the playgrounds, was not covered under the original funds raised by the Let's All Play campaign.

Although none of the requests by the Hayden or Soroco school districts was brought forward from the Capital Commission for this budget cycle, the issue of sharing worked into several of the Fund Board's discussions Wednesday night.

Brown said the three proposals from the outlying districts were well-presented but did not meet the goals of the Capital Commission. More requests from the Hayden School District will be considered at the groups' next presentation to the Fund Board on Feb. 4.

The $10,000 requested by the Capital Commission for small grants originally was intended only for the Steamboat Springs School District, Brown said, but after Jim Kurowski, chairman of the Technology Commission, said his group was planning to allow small-grants requests from the two newly added districts, the other districts may be added to the Capital Commission's small-grant proposal for the second reading and potential approval.

The Fund Board meets Jan. 28 for budget recommendations from the Technology Commission.

Recommendations from each of the commissions will go through two readings before the final budget is approved March 18.